


Merciless

by kitmerlot1213



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Animal Death, Child Murder, Disturbing Themes, Gen, Horror, Minor Character Death, unnamed Treadway children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 19:05:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9456578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitmerlot1213/pseuds/kitmerlot1213
Summary: Leonard McCoy realizes the truth about his daughter Joanna.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This is my 2016 contribution to spook_me live journal community--There is a reason Bones never talks about his daughter in the new Star Trek movies. ENJOY! :)

Leonard McCoy never talked about his daughter Joanna. 

He wasn’t intentionally hiding anything--it was just painfully difficult to talk about her. His family knew and understood, but he couldn’t imagine explaining his daughter’s condition to a stranger. 

So he kept silent and he tried not to let the guilt get to him because it had taken him such a long time to put the pieces together. 

And now that the puzzle was together, he couldn’t un-see the horrible truth.

McCoy was a doctor whose first instinct was to save lives and to heal wounds and it had been a horrifying realization that he couldn’t help his own daughter.

It had been Jocelyn who first noticed that Joanna didn’t have any school friends and that the children actively avoided her on the playground. They had been angered at the other kids for treating their little one so poorly, so Leo tried to make her feel better, but to his surprise, Joanna seemed unperturbed.

Leo tentatively asked her if she was lonely, and Joanna had given him a blank look. “Lonely?” she’d repeated mockingly. “No, I’m not lonely.”

Her dad was taken aback by her sarcastic response but then he looked into her hazel eyes, so much like his own he’d expected to see a fiery passion or at least a sunny hopefulness but instead, all he saw was a chilling, eerie blankness. 

 

Then the accidents with all of the little animals began to happen. Joanna had won a goldfish at the Peach County fair and Leo had been startled at how she stared at. She hadn’t smiled in joyful wonderment, she hadn’t seemed happy at all. 

Instead, as she watched the fish swim around, she had the look of a cold, detached scientist conducting an experiment.

The next morning, Jocelyn found the goldfish boiled alive, its fish bowl having been accidentally left on the radiator. Joanna had been staring down into the fish bowl, expressionless and it wasn’t until her mother took the bowl from her that she reacted at all. “Mother, may I have some scrambled eggs?”

Leo and Jocelyn tried to put their child’s odd behavior out of their minds, but everywhere they turned, they were reminded that she wasn’t like other children.

 

Their daughter was adored by Jocelyn’s parents, and her two aunts—Joce’s sisters—but Eleanor McCoy always seemed hesitant around the little girl. Whenever she’d hug Joanna, Eleanor would always pause for an instant to search Joanna’s face, like she was looking for something.

Leo could see that his mom was afraid and he didn’t have the courage to ask what she didn’t see in her granddaughter’s soul.

To this day, Leo was ashamed that they’d continued to rationalize Joanna’s increasingly dark and worrying behavior, and it wasn’t until their lives worsened that any positive action was taken.

 

One of Joanna’s well-intentioned aunts gave the little girl a hamster for her sixth birthday, but the poor creature only lasted a week before it was killed by Jo accidentally stepping on him.

The goldfish and hamster’s deaths could have been put down to the acts of a thoughtless child but then the incident with the neighbor’s kitten occurred—a nine year old Joanna used her father’s scalpel to skin the kitten alive-- and Leo and Jocelyn were finally forced to admit that something was wrong with their daughter.

They decided to take Joanna to see a child psychologist, but after only one session, the visibly shaken woman asked for them not to bring Joanna back and instead suggested a renowned psychiatrist speak with the little girl.

Leo had recognized the psychiatrist name—he was well known for the advances he’d made in treating the criminally insane—and he wanted Jo to meet him, but Jocelyn balked at the idea.

“Leo, I know you’re worried, but our little girl isn’t a criminal and she certainly isn’t insane!”

But Leo wouldn’t back down. “Joce, I don’t like saying this anymore then you like hearing it, but our daughter’s violent. She’s killed animals and it won’t be long before she moves onto people. We need to help her now before it becomes too late.”

“So what do you recommend, Doctor?” Jocelyn spat viciously. “Lock our baby up in an institution for the rest of her life?”

 

That had been the beginning of the end for not only their marriage, but for Joanna’s getting any psychological therapy. When Jocelyn received physical custody, she decided to home school the now twelve year old girl.

Jocelyn and Joanna moved to a new school district in a completely different town and Jocelyn had also decided to get remarried to Clay Treadway who had two children of his own, twin seven year old boys.

Leonard, with nothing of his old life left, chose to start over in Starfleet and for the first couple of months, everything was calm. For the first time in years Leo let out the breath he hadn’t noticed he was holding, and he truly hoped that a change of location would help Joanna’s outlook and she would be able to live normally, but that was when reality all came crashing back.

 

Within the year of Jocelyn's remarriage, Joanna attempted to murder her mother and she succeeded in her plans to kill her little step brothers. 

She’d also managed to set fire to the family’s home, damaging the homes on either side of theirs.

Only then did family members and neighbors come forward with complaints of Joanna’s behavior towards their kids, stories of Joanna’s escalating violence towards the smaller children, actions ranging from locking them into closets to trying to drown them in baths and swimming pools.

Afterwards, Joanna would threaten her victims with the deaths of their parents and the kids believed her and they kept quiet.

A weeping Jocelyn admitted that one of her step-sons had come to her about “Jo’s being mean” and Jocelyn had ignored it in favor of keeping her new family together. After hearing this, Clay, who had been out of town the night of the murders, left his wife’s hospital room and never came back.

A deal was made with the prosecution: Joanna would be placed in a secure facility for disturbed children until she reached the age of eighteen and then her case would be reevaluated.

Leo was now honest enough with himself to quietly hope that his daughter was never able to see freedom again.


End file.
